Last Wednesday our parents and Hamish flew down to Christchurch to catch up with relatives and attend the funeral of one of our great aunts (I can't exactly remember which one...I think it was Great Aunt Ruby? I've been telling people Rose but found out we have no Great Aunt Rose!).
This meant that Aonghas and I would be home alone for the next five days! I can say now that our house is still in tact and Aonghas and I got along well!
The most pressing issue was what to eat...That Wednesday morning before we got back to Henderson from the airport Aonghas and I had breakfast at McDonald's wihch wasn't too bad, and I had lunch at Wendy's that day. We just had a pizza at night. On Thursday though Aonghas had to go to work so I just ended up having a pie. Friday...now Friday I decided to try something different! I went to the Korean pancake stall that everyone's been raving on about! I have to say it was quite good! It was a little unusual having meat in a pancake but I got over that and enjoyed it! I next went down to this Asian foodcourt which I must say was a little grubby. I bought this bowl of fried rice with crab meat though which came with a bowl of soup, and it certainly was filling! It took me quite a long time to finish the huge bowl of rice! I've been warned by my friend Phoebe though that it's not safe to eat down there so I'm not too sure if I'll be back...since I haven't gotten food poisoning so far I probably will be back!
Aonghas and I binged on Wendys food on Friday night and I ended up going with pizza and popcorn on Saturday night (yes yes I can't cook) when Aonghas went off to someone's birthday party. By now there were dishes piling up and the dining room table was covered in junk. I decided on Sunday afternoon that it was about time someone got this sorted before our parents got back and through a hissy! I spent several hours after church washing dishes, and discovering that the forgotten leftover food we had in some pots had gone mouldy by now, along with all the buns we hadn't touched since our parents had gone!
The mum of this girl Jennifer in my Sunday school class (who also happens to be one of my Sunday school teachers!) was really kind, giving Aonghas and me plenty of cooked rice and vegetables for dinner on the last day we were home alone. That meant we didn't have to cook or buy any food!
OK this post has ended up about food but I guess that was one of the most noticeable differences! Of course we also had to wake up early by ourselves without our parents screaming at us, we had no one to tell us when to go to bed...so much freedom!...And so much money spent!!! But it's pretty good having them back now too though. Things are definitely a lot louder around the house!
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Hitting it Head-On
So let's make up for lost time with a few posts...The Dessert Club Ice-Cream Eating competition was on a couple Mondays back (the 13th to be precise) and to be honest it wasn't as successful as last year's competition, but at least the weather was good and we still got a few people competing! Each competitor had to eat 1L of ice-cream in the fastest time possible, and it was amazing how the winner could manage doing it in about a minute!
There was also this lost property sale going on as well, where the students association sells off handed-in lost property that hasn't been claimed after a certain time period. I wanted to buy two really cheap textbooks but didn't have any money, so I went all the way down to Queen Street to use the Kiwibank ATM only for it to give me a receipt but not my cashflow card back! I didn't know what to do so I stood there thinking for a few minutes when out popped my card! I wasn't too sure what was wrong so I reinserted my cashflow card (yes in hindsight this probably wasn't the brightest thing to do!). This time I actually noticed the message that said
"Sorry this ATM cannot process this transaction at the moment"
so I quickly walked all the way up the road to the nearest Kiwibank ATM only to discover a message on the screen saying it was out of order! Argh Kiwibank!! If only they had a working ATM on campus!
I was back in time for the ice-cream eating competition though. After a while of running the competition we ended up giving away free ice-cream which saw this large group of people sitting nearby who told us they couldn't enter as they needed to get to class soon come over to us!
It was also the day Jetstar made some important announcement, but not that important for me to remember what it was of course... They were doing some promotional thing with a koala mascot around campus and they came over. I asked for a photo with the koala and so while someone had the camera ready in the hand, I ran up to the koala and our heads collided! I probably came worse off!
Fortunately all was well. I was the only one with the sore head but to cap off the day a few of us Dessert Club members went over to some Japanese restaurant for a yummy Japanese feed!
There was also this lost property sale going on as well, where the students association sells off handed-in lost property that hasn't been claimed after a certain time period. I wanted to buy two really cheap textbooks but didn't have any money, so I went all the way down to Queen Street to use the Kiwibank ATM only for it to give me a receipt but not my cashflow card back! I didn't know what to do so I stood there thinking for a few minutes when out popped my card! I wasn't too sure what was wrong so I reinserted my cashflow card (yes in hindsight this probably wasn't the brightest thing to do!). This time I actually noticed the message that said
"Sorry this ATM cannot process this transaction at the moment"
so I quickly walked all the way up the road to the nearest Kiwibank ATM only to discover a message on the screen saying it was out of order! Argh Kiwibank!! If only they had a working ATM on campus!
I was back in time for the ice-cream eating competition though. After a while of running the competition we ended up giving away free ice-cream which saw this large group of people sitting nearby who told us they couldn't enter as they needed to get to class soon come over to us!
It was also the day Jetstar made some important announcement, but not that important for me to remember what it was of course... They were doing some promotional thing with a koala mascot around campus and they came over. I asked for a photo with the koala and so while someone had the camera ready in the hand, I ran up to the koala and our heads collided! I probably came worse off!
Fortunately all was well. I was the only one with the sore head but to cap off the day a few of us Dessert Club members went over to some Japanese restaurant for a yummy Japanese feed!
Sunday 12 October 2008
A Brief Appearance
I may be trying to study, but it ain't working too well!
Anyway the boys who hover around the Sky City bus stop asking for donations towards their sports academy's trip to Sydney finally approached me earlier this week. Since I had been thinking earlier this year that if they ever asked me I'd give them some money, I thought I better live up to my word, or my thought on this occasion. I ended up giving them $5 since I had a $5 note in my wallet. Finally I have made a donation! I admit there are many more worthy causes out there, but they'll just have to approach me first! (Don't think of that as an invitation though! haha) There was one guy who was busking on Queen St, playing his guitar and singing 'Grow Old with You' (from the Wedding Singer) which was really nice! I would've given him some money but I was in a bit of a hurry and didn't have my wallet on me at the time.
I was rushing to get back to uni after buying a birthday present for a girl in record time! I think I'm getting better! OK I admit I had a little bit of help...
It was Jacqueline's birthday on Thursday and she had organised a little get-together for some of her friends at Mission Bay. I wasn't too sure if I was going as late as that morning as I wasn't too sure if anyone I knew would be going, and whether the weather would even be good! Fortunately I found out my other friend Sarena was going and she offered to give me a ride which saved me from having to catch the bus. She was coming in twenty minutes to pick me up and so with still no birthday present for Jacqueline I rushed down to the shopping centre and started looking around. Teddy bears and chocolate were sorta ruled out early since I bought her those last year. I was wandering around looking for something when I came across the jewelery and perfume stand! The jewelery was slightly out of my price range, but there was some perfume! I asked the lady at the stand if some perfume I was looking at was good but after telling her the age of my friend she showed me some other perfume, telling me the other perfume was aimed more at older women! So I trusted the perfume lady and she helped make the decision for me!
I power-walked all the way back to uni just in time for Sarena to pick me up and we headed off to Mission Bay. We got there and wandered around looking for Jacqueline before deciding to just sit beside the fountain. Sarena had to leave by 1.30pm to get back to uni in time for her class and I was going back with her, and so we were hoping Jacqueline would get there soon. I texted her asking where she was. When she didn't reply to me after several minutes, Sarena tried texting her, and we said to each other this would determine who Jacqueline loves the most! Well it only took a few minutes before Sarena got a reply! No fair!
We caught up with a few of Jacqueline's friends who Sarena recognised and we waited outside the Fishpot Cafe for Jacqueline. She finally turned up half an hour later! I packed a little sad when she tried giving me a hug (as a joke!!) but I forgave her! Even after Jacqueline turned up we still had to wait for her other friends! Larry, Sarena and I decided to order first since we had to leave early and we ate before the others.
We soon had to leave just as the others were about to order and as Sarena was pulling out of the carpark Ben, another ex-Rutherford guy came out of nowhere asking us where everyone was!
I went to Sarena's psycholagy lecture when we got back to uni because it sounded like it'd be interesting, and it actually was! We learnt about social stereotyping! Sometimes I wish I was studying psychology!
We caught up with a few of Jacqueline's friends who Sarena recognised and we waited outside the Fishpot Cafe for Jacqueline. She finally turned up half an hour later! I packed a little sad when she tried giving me a hug (as a joke!!) but I forgave her! Even after Jacqueline turned up we still had to wait for her other friends! Larry, Sarena and I decided to order first since we had to leave early and we ate before the others.
We soon had to leave just as the others were about to order and as Sarena was pulling out of the carpark Ben, another ex-Rutherford guy came out of nowhere asking us where everyone was!
I went to Sarena's psycholagy lecture when we got back to uni because it sounded like it'd be interesting, and it actually was! We learnt about social stereotyping! Sometimes I wish I was studying psychology!
Tuesday 7 October 2008
Put Off Again!
Today I just found out that my surgery has been postponed yet again! Apparently the theatre was shut down for a day and so a lady who was scheduled to have surgery that day will be taking my place and my surgery will be moved to December or January some time. I guess the silver lining, if you can call it that, is that I'll be able to sit my last chemistry exam without any problems and don't have to apply for any special conditions or anything!
I also rang the supervising pharmacist for my externship today and this guy answered the phone. He sounds pretty laidback and joked about me being the lucky student who gets to spend a day at their pharmacy! I'll be doing that next Wednesday!
We got to make the medicine we came up with for our formulation assignment in the lab today. That meant I got to make my Paediatric PP! :D It didn't look too appealing though. It was a browny colour. Fortunately it wasn't too thick though! We didn't use real pseudoephedrine of course as...well you know...Steven, my partner for the assignment thought he'd give the medicine a go and found it very bitter! Thank goodness we won't be marked on the *actual* taste of our medicine!
I've been starting to do some 'real' study today but I just keep on falling asleep! After half an hour I've only covered a page! I really need to buy some lollies!
I also rang the supervising pharmacist for my externship today and this guy answered the phone. He sounds pretty laidback and joked about me being the lucky student who gets to spend a day at their pharmacy! I'll be doing that next Wednesday!
We got to make the medicine we came up with for our formulation assignment in the lab today. That meant I got to make my Paediatric PP! :D It didn't look too appealing though. It was a browny colour. Fortunately it wasn't too thick though! We didn't use real pseudoephedrine of course as...well you know...Steven, my partner for the assignment thought he'd give the medicine a go and found it very bitter! Thank goodness we won't be marked on the *actual* taste of our medicine!
I've been starting to do some 'real' study today but I just keep on falling asleep! After half an hour I've only covered a page! I really need to buy some lollies!
Formal Dinner Fun
The pharmacy Formal Dinner was held on Saturday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, a place I've become familiar to after having attended three school balls there, accordion scholarship evenings and a few other events!
Even though I spent $50 on a ticket I wasn't even sure I was going to go as late as Saturday as I didn't even have transport! In the end I had to catch the bus...in a suit...That felt really weird, but I suppose it wasn't too bad since there weren't that many people on the bus. I was wearing the suit I had bought earlier in the morning. My brothers and I each bought a suit at this outlet store one of our relatives (or soon-to-be I suppose) works at as they were on discount!
My bus came late so I ended up sitting at a bus stop beside the main street for at least ten minutes, in my suit of course..The bus ride on the Ritchies bus wasn't too bad, and in fact impressed me! They actually had background music playing in the bus! Classy!
When I got to the hotel I thought I'd be late but everyone was still standing around in the foyer. One guy was dressed in a panda costume! Eventually we made it into the main hall. Everyone found a seat to sit at. My friends and I were trying to look for one, and after they managed to find seats at separate tables, I was still left with no seat! I found some other pharmacy girls who had no seat and joined them in looking for a table to sit at. I caught up with Eliza, the only first year to be at the dinner! She deserves an award just for that!! Eventually we were left standing in the corner waiting for someone to find a table for us. We ended up sitting at the sponsors' table since they didn't show up. That was a little awkward, especially sitting at a table with people you're not too close with and when the people beside you are busy texting it doesn't really make a good atmosphere for conversation-making!
Anyway dinner was all right. It was buffet. I had seconds for dessert as that was really nice! There was cheesecake and lychee!!
The formal part of the dinner got under way with the speeches and awards. Ravit got ladies' man award in our year while Ahmed and Richard got most likely to form a scooter gang award. Congratulations to Mimi for being elected Vice-President of the Pharmacy Students Association and Ahmed and Richard for Sports Reps as well!!
I managed to make my way over to the tables where most of the second years were sitting at and did some photo-taking before we all made our way to the dancefloor for the last part of the evening which was a lot more fun! Michael was most definitely the dancing king (if you could call him that!) with his slick moves! Me...I was just shuffling and trying to dance!
Towards the end of the night I took my glasses off and put them in my pocket as they were quiet loose and I didn't want to drop them. Once the night was over I reached for them but couldn't find them! Since I couldn't see the ground (bad eyesight+not much light!) I tried asking a few others if they could help me find them but no one could find my glasses, so I was about to give up on them. Aonghas and my dad came to pick me up and my dad sent Aonghas and I to look for them one more time. We still couldn't find them and the staff who were cleaning the room said they hadn't seen any glasses. We were about to leave when Judy, one of the APSA execs came running to catch up with me and handed me my glasses! Someone had found them! Yay!!! To be honest I wouldn't have minded getting a new pair of glasses but hey this way I don't have to spend extra money now!
So it was a good and happy end to the night!
Even though I spent $50 on a ticket I wasn't even sure I was going to go as late as Saturday as I didn't even have transport! In the end I had to catch the bus...in a suit...That felt really weird, but I suppose it wasn't too bad since there weren't that many people on the bus. I was wearing the suit I had bought earlier in the morning. My brothers and I each bought a suit at this outlet store one of our relatives (or soon-to-be I suppose) works at as they were on discount!
My bus came late so I ended up sitting at a bus stop beside the main street for at least ten minutes, in my suit of course..The bus ride on the Ritchies bus wasn't too bad, and in fact impressed me! They actually had background music playing in the bus! Classy!
When I got to the hotel I thought I'd be late but everyone was still standing around in the foyer. One guy was dressed in a panda costume! Eventually we made it into the main hall. Everyone found a seat to sit at. My friends and I were trying to look for one, and after they managed to find seats at separate tables, I was still left with no seat! I found some other pharmacy girls who had no seat and joined them in looking for a table to sit at. I caught up with Eliza, the only first year to be at the dinner! She deserves an award just for that!! Eventually we were left standing in the corner waiting for someone to find a table for us. We ended up sitting at the sponsors' table since they didn't show up. That was a little awkward, especially sitting at a table with people you're not too close with and when the people beside you are busy texting it doesn't really make a good atmosphere for conversation-making!
Anyway dinner was all right. It was buffet. I had seconds for dessert as that was really nice! There was cheesecake and lychee!!
The formal part of the dinner got under way with the speeches and awards. Ravit got ladies' man award in our year while Ahmed and Richard got most likely to form a scooter gang award. Congratulations to Mimi for being elected Vice-President of the Pharmacy Students Association and Ahmed and Richard for Sports Reps as well!!
I managed to make my way over to the tables where most of the second years were sitting at and did some photo-taking before we all made our way to the dancefloor for the last part of the evening which was a lot more fun! Michael was most definitely the dancing king (if you could call him that!) with his slick moves! Me...I was just shuffling and trying to dance!
Towards the end of the night I took my glasses off and put them in my pocket as they were quiet loose and I didn't want to drop them. Once the night was over I reached for them but couldn't find them! Since I couldn't see the ground (bad eyesight+not much light!) I tried asking a few others if they could help me find them but no one could find my glasses, so I was about to give up on them. Aonghas and my dad came to pick me up and my dad sent Aonghas and I to look for them one more time. We still couldn't find them and the staff who were cleaning the room said they hadn't seen any glasses. We were about to leave when Judy, one of the APSA execs came running to catch up with me and handed me my glasses! Someone had found them! Yay!!! To be honest I wouldn't have minded getting a new pair of glasses but hey this way I don't have to spend extra money now!
So it was a good and happy end to the night!
Monday 6 October 2008
Those Darn Assignments
Two weeks since the last post this must be the longest I've been away from blogging and I admit to procrastinating as well, thinking to myself well...I'll post something tomorrow... Although I do have a good excuse for the past couple of weeks - my two assignments!
But let's start off with something I missed mentioning in my last post several weeks ago - Rhea's farewell dinner! It was on the 19th of September I think...Anyway Rhea was an old mate from school and I also got to know her younger brother through one of the Studio Shows back at Rutherford when I was performing the accordion in one of them and he was playing the drums with a band. They also lived just down the road from us!
Anyway Rhea and her family were moving to Australia noooooo! More people moving away!! She had a bit of a farewell dinner the night before at Nando's at West City. I didn't know who else was going but when I got there...slightly late...there were a few of the old guys from her year at Rutherford such as Aone, Natasha (Howdle), Lisa, Caroline and Jenna! I haven't seen quite a few of them since they were still at school last year!
We had a bit of a catch-up over a feed before we went over to the arcade place by the movies to play a few games. The cinemas had plastered all these signs everywhere saying you had to be a movie-goer in order to enter the arcade and to use their toilets too! Oh well we just disregarded those signs! A few of the girls played the basketball shooting game while it was Natasha vs Caroline in air hockey (is that what it's called?). Caroline had a bit of trouble with one of bike-racing games munching up her money! I managed to scare Natasha while she was playing this shooting game with Caroline ahahahahaha! The security guard was quite nice too, often calling some of the girls over to play free games whenever one of the machines said there was credit left!
So Rhea's now gone off to Melbourne. Hopefully she's having a terrible, terrible time being surrounded by Ockers and feeling homesick. Nah nah it sounds like she's adjusting well and having fun over there! Hopefully she comes back and visits sometime in the future!
--
In the past week I've been mainly working on two assignments, one a formulation assignment where I have to come up with my own drug, while the other is a 3000 essay on a certain drug.
For the formulation assignment, I was partnering with my friend Steven to come up with a drug that contained at least paracetamol and pseudoephedrine. What we had on our side was that one of my youth group leaders is a pharmacist who's in the manufacturing/formulation side of things and was able to give me advice on what sorta ingredients to use and how to go about deciding which excipients to use.
In the end we came up with a paracetamol and pseudoephedrine suspension with orange syrup and...well I won't tell you what else is in it or else you might steal it ;) The morning of the day it was due Steven and I were making last minute checks and fortunately the guy sitting at the same table as us was a pharmacy student, probably a year or two ahead of us, who offered to help check things for us! He said it looked good so hopefully it's all OK! We ended up naming our drug: Paediatric PP! We were thinking about Paradrine, or Pseudomol, but then just before one of my pharmacy labs I heard someone else talking about those names and came to realise that a lot of people were using names like those!
--
I had my Individual Student Assessment in the pharmacy lab last week. That is when a tutor pretends to be your patient and you have to pretend to be their pharmacist and instruct them on how to use the drug you've made. They then ask more technical questions to test your understanding of of the drug. I got this Korean tutor who I must say was HARSH! She asked me all these technical questions and I couldn't tell if she was still pretending to be the patient or not! She asked me a question I wasn't too sure how to answer, and so I was thinking...should I make something up or be honest and say I don't know the answer? So I thought I'd go along with the roleplay and say
"I'm not exactly too sure sorry but I'll go get the pharmacist"
That's when my tutor/patient said
"But you ARE the pharmacist!!'
Oh boy.... no marks back for that yet though.
--
And finally, my MEDSCI204 assignment, a 3000 word essay on one of six drugs. I (stupidly) chose atomoxetine to write about. It just happened to be one of the newest drugs of the six, the one with probably the least information. For example, when it came to the mechanisms of action, most of what I got was
"Scientists are still unsure how it works..."
That's great help! Now I admit I did miss quite a few lectures that week just to work on my essay, but despite that, I still ended up doing an all-niter on Thursday night and only just got the essay finished at 7.30am Friday morning! It was due at 1pm later that Friday, but because I had a BIOSCI lab from 10am-1pm that day I pretty much had to submit it before I went into the lab.
I caught the bus into uni with Phoebe as I usually do on Friday mornings. We got into the city so early that we had plenty of time to go into a computer lab and just muck around, put on makeup (and I'm not talking about Phoebe...jk), and submit my essay before having to go to class. I was so tired that day I sorta fell asleep in the lab while the tutor was going through the instructions! I was about to attend my chemistry lecture straight after, but I only sat down for a few seconds, thought.....NAAAHHH and left. When I exited the building I came by the Music School, so in a spur of the moment sorta thing I attended the lunchtime music concert, which probably isn't such a good thing when you're tired, because you're bound to sleep right through it, especially when it's classical music!
Well I was determined to attend my BIOSCI lecture after a week's absence, but it turned out there was none! That meant I could go home early! :D When I say early I really mean 3pm. I was sitting at the bus stop when these teams of people dressed up came by. One team was dressed in rugby gear, one in army gear...they were carrying scales and asking people at the bus stop if they could weigh them! Apparently it was part of their company's team-building competition 'The Amazing Race'. They did adjust the scales to start at 10kg though. Talk about cheating! I managed to catch the bus back home with Phoebe again so that was cool catching up with her again.
Now I've only got one more assignment to go..my pharmacy externship! Unfortunately the pharmacy I'm spending a day at is in Ranui. My friends who don't live in West Auckland anymore but still put down West Auckland as their preferred location managed to get a pharmacy in Te Atatu Peninsula, the one this girl in my Sunday school works at as an intern! My friend who lives in Lynfield also got a pharmacy in Henderson! I suppose Ranui isn't too far away anyway. At least it isn't as bad as my friend who lives in North Shore but was given Penrose after there were no more pharmacies left on the Shore!
--
I've been catching up with my friend Alice in the past few weeks too. We had a big long discussion on all sorts of stuff at one time and then the next week we went for a little visit to the laptop shop where I had bought the laptop case that was too small for my laptop. Fortunately hers fits! After talking to her though I kinda wish I bought a Sony Vaio now! Maybe I'll make that the next brand I try!
--
You may be aware that I semi-sprained my ankle after falling down the stairs in a lecture theatre a few weeks ago. Well a week later at youth group it was activities night and we were playing some game with balloons...sorta like netball...and I somehow bent my middle finger back and sprained...or bruised it? It turned brown at least! Now it is feeling a bit better and I can still play the accordion! Oh and my ankle's all better now!
As for my application to sit my exam early because of my surgery, I'm still waiting for my orthodontist to write a letter for me. Please please please write the letter before the due date Mrs Orthodontist lady!!
But let's start off with something I missed mentioning in my last post several weeks ago - Rhea's farewell dinner! It was on the 19th of September I think...Anyway Rhea was an old mate from school and I also got to know her younger brother through one of the Studio Shows back at Rutherford when I was performing the accordion in one of them and he was playing the drums with a band. They also lived just down the road from us!
Anyway Rhea and her family were moving to Australia noooooo! More people moving away!! She had a bit of a farewell dinner the night before at Nando's at West City. I didn't know who else was going but when I got there...slightly late...there were a few of the old guys from her year at Rutherford such as Aone, Natasha (Howdle), Lisa, Caroline and Jenna! I haven't seen quite a few of them since they were still at school last year!
We had a bit of a catch-up over a feed before we went over to the arcade place by the movies to play a few games. The cinemas had plastered all these signs everywhere saying you had to be a movie-goer in order to enter the arcade and to use their toilets too! Oh well we just disregarded those signs! A few of the girls played the basketball shooting game while it was Natasha vs Caroline in air hockey (is that what it's called?). Caroline had a bit of trouble with one of bike-racing games munching up her money! I managed to scare Natasha while she was playing this shooting game with Caroline ahahahahaha! The security guard was quite nice too, often calling some of the girls over to play free games whenever one of the machines said there was credit left!
So Rhea's now gone off to Melbourne. Hopefully she's having a terrible, terrible time being surrounded by Ockers and feeling homesick. Nah nah it sounds like she's adjusting well and having fun over there! Hopefully she comes back and visits sometime in the future!
--
In the past week I've been mainly working on two assignments, one a formulation assignment where I have to come up with my own drug, while the other is a 3000 essay on a certain drug.
For the formulation assignment, I was partnering with my friend Steven to come up with a drug that contained at least paracetamol and pseudoephedrine. What we had on our side was that one of my youth group leaders is a pharmacist who's in the manufacturing/formulation side of things and was able to give me advice on what sorta ingredients to use and how to go about deciding which excipients to use.
In the end we came up with a paracetamol and pseudoephedrine suspension with orange syrup and...well I won't tell you what else is in it or else you might steal it ;) The morning of the day it was due Steven and I were making last minute checks and fortunately the guy sitting at the same table as us was a pharmacy student, probably a year or two ahead of us, who offered to help check things for us! He said it looked good so hopefully it's all OK! We ended up naming our drug: Paediatric PP! We were thinking about Paradrine, or Pseudomol, but then just before one of my pharmacy labs I heard someone else talking about those names and came to realise that a lot of people were using names like those!
--
I had my Individual Student Assessment in the pharmacy lab last week. That is when a tutor pretends to be your patient and you have to pretend to be their pharmacist and instruct them on how to use the drug you've made. They then ask more technical questions to test your understanding of of the drug. I got this Korean tutor who I must say was HARSH! She asked me all these technical questions and I couldn't tell if she was still pretending to be the patient or not! She asked me a question I wasn't too sure how to answer, and so I was thinking...should I make something up or be honest and say I don't know the answer? So I thought I'd go along with the roleplay and say
"I'm not exactly too sure sorry but I'll go get the pharmacist"
That's when my tutor/patient said
"But you ARE the pharmacist!!'
Oh boy.... no marks back for that yet though.
--
And finally, my MEDSCI204 assignment, a 3000 word essay on one of six drugs. I (stupidly) chose atomoxetine to write about. It just happened to be one of the newest drugs of the six, the one with probably the least information. For example, when it came to the mechanisms of action, most of what I got was
"Scientists are still unsure how it works..."
That's great help! Now I admit I did miss quite a few lectures that week just to work on my essay, but despite that, I still ended up doing an all-niter on Thursday night and only just got the essay finished at 7.30am Friday morning! It was due at 1pm later that Friday, but because I had a BIOSCI lab from 10am-1pm that day I pretty much had to submit it before I went into the lab.
I caught the bus into uni with Phoebe as I usually do on Friday mornings. We got into the city so early that we had plenty of time to go into a computer lab and just muck around, put on makeup (and I'm not talking about Phoebe...jk), and submit my essay before having to go to class. I was so tired that day I sorta fell asleep in the lab while the tutor was going through the instructions! I was about to attend my chemistry lecture straight after, but I only sat down for a few seconds, thought.....NAAAHHH and left. When I exited the building I came by the Music School, so in a spur of the moment sorta thing I attended the lunchtime music concert, which probably isn't such a good thing when you're tired, because you're bound to sleep right through it, especially when it's classical music!
Well I was determined to attend my BIOSCI lecture after a week's absence, but it turned out there was none! That meant I could go home early! :D When I say early I really mean 3pm. I was sitting at the bus stop when these teams of people dressed up came by. One team was dressed in rugby gear, one in army gear...they were carrying scales and asking people at the bus stop if they could weigh them! Apparently it was part of their company's team-building competition 'The Amazing Race'. They did adjust the scales to start at 10kg though. Talk about cheating! I managed to catch the bus back home with Phoebe again so that was cool catching up with her again.
Now I've only got one more assignment to go..my pharmacy externship! Unfortunately the pharmacy I'm spending a day at is in Ranui. My friends who don't live in West Auckland anymore but still put down West Auckland as their preferred location managed to get a pharmacy in Te Atatu Peninsula, the one this girl in my Sunday school works at as an intern! My friend who lives in Lynfield also got a pharmacy in Henderson! I suppose Ranui isn't too far away anyway. At least it isn't as bad as my friend who lives in North Shore but was given Penrose after there were no more pharmacies left on the Shore!
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I've been catching up with my friend Alice in the past few weeks too. We had a big long discussion on all sorts of stuff at one time and then the next week we went for a little visit to the laptop shop where I had bought the laptop case that was too small for my laptop. Fortunately hers fits! After talking to her though I kinda wish I bought a Sony Vaio now! Maybe I'll make that the next brand I try!
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You may be aware that I semi-sprained my ankle after falling down the stairs in a lecture theatre a few weeks ago. Well a week later at youth group it was activities night and we were playing some game with balloons...sorta like netball...and I somehow bent my middle finger back and sprained...or bruised it? It turned brown at least! Now it is feeling a bit better and I can still play the accordion! Oh and my ankle's all better now!
As for my application to sit my exam early because of my surgery, I'm still waiting for my orthodontist to write a letter for me. Please please please write the letter before the due date Mrs Orthodontist lady!!
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